For a third time, the government has extended the exploration period allowed to the Galp-ENI consortium which has a concession for the Lavagante, Santola and Gamba areas off the Costa Vicentina natural park.

The request to extend the exploration period was approved by the Secretary of State for Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, who clearly is worried that the consortium will take the government to court to recover costs if he did not sign.

Parliament today approved the suspension of oil and gas exploration off the Aljezur coast until an environmental and economic impact assessment has been submitted and reviewed.

This draft resolution, presented by the Portuguese Communist Party, at least stops the Galp-ENI consortium from drilling its first test well but leaves the door open for continued oil and gas exploration depending on the result of the assessment.

Thursday this week is the big day for Portugal’s anti-oil protest groups as they are due to gather in front of parliament to ask – why?

Councils in the Algarve and up the west coast have said ‘no’ to oil exploration and drilling and want to know what the government is going to do to stop it.

An unholy alliance between the government and the Australian energy company Australis has seen the Sanctuary of Fátima included in an oil and gas exploration zone - with fracking a real possibility.

An urgent appeal has been posted by leading anti-oil and gas organisation, ASMAA, which asks all Catholics, there are around eight million in Portugal, to write to their MPs and government, and come to a demonstration in Lisbon.

With oil and gas drilling ‘back on the agenda’ for the Costa Vicentina - from Sines all the way round to Lagos on the south coast - activists have launched a last-ditch campaign to raise the necessary funds to fight it.

ASMAA - the Lagos-based citizens’ rights group - is planning a raft of legal actions to tackle all the threats suddenly stacked up on the horizon.

On the day that Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize winner, addressed thousands of young delegates at the Lisbon’s 2017 Web Summit, dozens of activists made a peaceful protest outside the Altice Arena to reinforce their ‘no to oil and gas exploration in Portugal’ message.

According to Isabel Rosa from the International Center for Peace Research, the demonstration was held because Al Gore was present and the goal was to associate his environmental work, with "non-drilling of oil and natural gas on the Portuguese coast."

The oil and gas threat is back in the news as environmental organsation, Palp, releases an update on the various legal challenges to the government’s plan to facilitate oil and gas exploration companies' paths to exploratory drilling and extraction.

A posting on social media by environmental association, Climáximo, has reported that an Italian surveying vessel, the Vos Purpose, has been illegally surveying the sea area off Aljezur where the Galp-ENI energy consortium still has plans to drill a test well next Spring.

Between September 2nd and 9th, according to international maritime traffic records, the Italian vessel left the Port of Sines and made her way to the area where the Aljezur well is to be sunk.